In exchanging emails yesterday with my dear friend, Julie, in our former hometown of East Wenatchee, Wash., I learned that they are currently “enjoying” a weather phenomenon which occurs several times every winter there. When I first moved to North Central Washington six years ago, I heard a lot about the 300+ days of sunshine the area gets. No one talked about what seemed like the 30+ days spent under the cold, gray blanket of fog that smothers the area in the winter months. I found it ironic that I would be sitting on the “sunny” side of the Cascades in midwinter in dreary misery,  watching the Seattle news broadcasts gloating at the beautiful sunny winter days they were enjoying. (Note that, all you who believe it rains all the time in Seattle!)

This winter has taught me that the Rogue Valley here in Southern Oregon ALSO experiences weeks of fog during high-pressure inversions — the one aspect I’m not at all pleased my present and former residences have in common. It seems these things sweep in and clamp a lid over the valleys, trapping us under a gray, inpenetrable shroud, while just a few hundred feet up into the hills and mountains the sky is bright blue and the sun smiles down like a blessing. This is the worst time of year for such depressing weather, as we all hit the post-holiday blahs. Due to tighter budgets after all that December spending, new-year work that keeps us chained to our desks and weather that makes long-distance travel iffy at best, everyday life can seem pretty dull and bleak.

What are your solutions for the gray days of January and February? What do you do to cure cabin fever? Where do you go when you can’t escape for a week to some sunny beach somewhere but only have a day or two to leave behind the winter doldrums? Me, I just may literally head for the hills to climb above the current fog bank. Julie tells me she may trek up to Lake Chelan for a little retail therapy and maybe some winetasting, too. Sometimes it just requires throwing off that mental shroud and shaking things up a bit to get the juices flowing again. What’s your solution?

— Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader